Hans Beimler

Hans Beimler (2 July 1895-1 December 1936) was a member of the German Communist Party and the commander of the XI Hans Beimler International Brigade (Franco-Belgian Commune de Paris Battalion, Austro-German Edgar Andre Battalion, Italo-Spanish Garibaldi Battalion, and Polish-Balkan Dabrowski Battalion) during the Spanish Civil War.

Biography
Hans Beimler was born in Munich in the Kingdom of Bavaria on 2 July 1895 in the German Empire (present-day Germany). He served in the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I, and was a fervent anti-Nazi Party activist. Beimler was a member of the German Communist Party, and was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in 1933 as punishment. In May 1933 he strangled his SA guard and escaped the camp in his uniform, reaching Spain, where he became the commissar of the first international brigade that arrived in the country during the Spanish Civil War. In November 1936 he helped to defend the Spanish capital of Madrid from the Nationalists of Francisco Franco (backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) and was killed by the Soviet Union's NKVD during the siege of Madrid on 1 December.